A few weeks ago I was preparing to head out of town for work, so I changed the oil in my wife's market truck and added about a pint of anti-freeze to the radiator.  I drove home after work on Tuesday with propane tanks filled and to make the kiddo's school concert, while following them home to swap trucks and get some food, I started smelling burnt sugar.  When I got her 1994 Toyota in site it was billowing clouds of white smoke.  As the 3.0l v6 has a reputation for losing head gaskets that was my assumption.  When we called the mechanic we were quoted $1400.  As we had only paid $1500 for the truck, and the gauges did not work, a decision was made to send it off to a new home.

As I was working up the road where they have car dealerships I went looking for a new, used rig for the family and market.  My wife grows tomatoes commercially and sells primarily at the local farmers market.  So we ended up with a Certified Pre-Owned 2016 F 150.   So far we are happy with this truck.  Pics will follow.

Does anyone on here have experience with Ford's 3.5l v6?  I know that it is a turbo charged engine, but have done no research.  We are getting right at 20 MPG in a 4x4 crew cab truck, which is better than any other vehicle we own.

I've owned a 2014 F-150 with the turbo v-6 and I've had no problems with the engine.  I think we're over 40k on it now.

Agreed on all counts.  Ford still sells a hell of a lot of normally aspirated 302 V-8's - especially in their truck line for precisely that reason.  With proper care and feeding those engines are damned near bulletproof. 

Do they run them in Oklahoma?  If so, do they use the severe service maintenance schedule?   

Good to know.  IIRC wife's truck has about 36,000 miles on it.

With reguard to turbo reliability, my Duramax has about 150,000 miles on it, should I be planning a turbo replacement?  I was figuring on 200,000 before worring about that.  Is the life on Ford tubo's that much shorter? Or is that due to the difference in fuel and engine/turbo rpm?

The Ford turbos are pretty small. So they spend more time at higher RPM. Which is good for doing away with turbo lag, but it is bad for longevity.

None of the Duramax turbos made 200k at work. It could be conditions here, but they just didn't make it. I know that temps are the real killer on turbos so maybe being cooler where you are might be significantly better.

Just curious.  Here in Phoenix we always run under the severe service schedule because of the heat and the microfine dust.  It's usually in the fine print of your vehicle warranty but if you've lived here for any length of time it becomes obvious why you need to do it that way. 

Fords are big sellers here and the EcoBoost engines seem to do fairly well.  I've heard a few horror stories but no more than with their old 6.0 L diesel engines. 

Agreed.  I have a friend who was a heavy line mechanic for a car/truck dealership here for many years and he tells horror stories about finding enough of the microfine dust here in the bottom of an oil pan to make a passable polishing compound.  Filters almost completely clogged with the stuff.  Deteriorated CV boots full of the stuff.  Bad news all around if you ignore the severe service schedule. 

I ran a K&N filter for years on my old Chevy K5 Blazer and liked it fine.  Its a bit of a pain in the a&& when it comes time to clean and re-oil the filtration element but that was the designated hunting/camping truck and it spent considerable time out in the dirt and the filter seemed to do its job.  If I had it to do over again I would pair it with a high snorkel intake to cut down on the amount sucked in when following another vehicle but other than that it was money well spent IMO.  I don't remember exactly how many miles that truck had on it when I sold it but I do remember it was over 100,000 and the heads had never been off it and the mains were original and it still passed the emissions test.  I ran a synthetic blend in it and changed the oil and filter every 3000 miles like clockwork. 

I have not taken any pics, but today's project was to put a do-it-yourself bed liner in my new truck.  I worked on the prep for the last three days after work, and scuffing the entire bed was an absolute pain in the ass.  I rolled out the Hercaliner this afternoon.  Hoping that it will dry enough so that I can put on the second coat after dinner so that it can have a chance to dry before the rain forecast for tomorrow.

I wanted to use the Raptor spray on liner, but it would not ship to AK and it would require me to rent a shop in order to get the necessary temperatures for it to cure.   

I have got 6500 miles on mine, 10 speed is really nice for a slush box auto.  I would still like a 6 speed manual even if I lost a bit of mileage.  But IIRC 8th is 1:1, and both 9th and 10th are overdrives.  I get around 2.5-3 mpg more than the wife's truck with the 6 speed auto, about 46,000 on hers, 20.5 mpg vs 17.5-18 mpg.  We are about 7 miles of highway from town, 2.5 miles from the house to the highway, 7 miles of 55, then about 2.5 miles to town at 45, and then what ever it is to the job.  I usually average about 17 miles each way to work. 

I do generally keep my foot out of what ever I am driving, despite going 5-10 mph over the speed limit.  The 3.5l is a powerhouse.  When I was going from a 7.3 diesel to the 4.9l gas, I missed the power and torque.  My boss's truck has the 5.8L and it feels like a dog in comparison, but most of that is the 4 speed auto and heavier vehicle weight . I really like the power, even if I rarely use it, love the responsiveness, and it rides almost as nice as a Chevy.

I rolled it across the scales at the dump last Friday, three totes of tools 200-250lbs, half a tank of gas approximately 18 gallons, and it said 5800 pounds.  I think that my Duramax scaled out at 1000-1200 lbs more with a similar load.

No problems with either, and she drove hers twice to Fairbanks this winter and we did nothing special for the harsh cold, it was fine.  I am not sure I am sold on the aluminum body, but Ford sure seems to have the bugs worked out of this generation of F-150.  If something were to happen that we needed to replace either one, it would be another F-150 3.5L 10 speed.

I ended up having my truck towed to the stealership on Friday after work.   The drive train is still flawless with 13,800 miles on it over the last 14 months, but I have been fighting with Ford over the fact that the door latches freeze in the open position.  It happened a few times last winter, but it was a warm rainy winter and I did not think much about it.  Warm rainy winter here means that it is 35 and rain one day and 25 the next.  I was talking to the dealership about another minor issue and just casually asked about the door latches freezing and was told that there was a service bulletin for that.  After two visits to the stealership, I was told that they had done all that Ford was allowing them to do and that if I wanted further action I had to deal with ford customer care.  I have now been fighting with them for a month or so.  They don't seem to understand that if you can't close the door, you can't safely drive the vehicle.  I have had to carry a heat gun and an extension cord so that I can thaw the latches whenever I need to and where ever I am.  I have had to thaw doors mainly at home in the mornings, and occasionally after work.  I have been spending 1-2 hours per week working on the truck just so that it is drive able.  Then this Friday after thawing the same door for the second time I finished my errands and swung by the company office to drop off the sub-floor adhesive that I did not want to freeze over the weekend, and when I attempted to close the door I heard a funny noise and looked and saw a spring sticking out of the latch.  After talking to my wife and deciding that we could figure out a way to not have two vehicles for a week or so I decided to call Ford road side assistance and have the truck towed to the dealership to re-enforce the fact that the truck is un-driveable with out working door latches.

So fortunately I had put off the guy who wanted to buy my old 1992 ford.  So I spent yesterday getting it out of the snowbank and running.  Damn I miss my new truck.  I like having a standard and an eight foot bed again, but that 28 year old truck sure is showing it's age.  It rattles, wanders, drips, and shakes.  I tried putting my time sheets above the visor, but they kept shaking loose and falling on the floor. 

I am trying to get Ford to fix my truck 100% right now or buy it back.  I went to the dealership on Thursday and looked at used trucks but would not accept the trade in deal they offered.  I am pissed, but will not take a $8000 loss on a truck that I am happy with except for the one stupid little thing. 

I guess that that is the lesson.  Ford can't keep up with fixes for the problems in their new vehicles.  How hard is it to figure out how to make door latches work on your number one selling product?

I'm sorry to hear this. Personally, I really like Ford.

Me too.  I have owned twice as many Fords as any other brand.  Ironically I will most likely buy another Ford to replace the current one if they can't fix it.  I wish I could get a super duty frame, and body with the F-150 power train.  Seriously best of all worlds.

I have had fewer problems with my Chevy's, but I have never owned a new one.  Also I bought one with a serious issue that I knew there was a bulletin on, that saved me $6000.  My buddy missed getting his truck fixed under that bulletin, injectors, and it cost him almost $9000 by the time his mechanic figured out the problem and fixed his truck.

I am back to thinking about building my own truck.  Frame and body would be Ford Super duty crew cab long bed, axles dana 60 front and rear with the Ford suspension.  If I go gas it will be a LS engine probably a 4.8L so I could turbo charge it.  I would like to go I6 love the Chevy and Ford inline 6's, but want more power than they produced.  Don't need crazy power but would like 200-250 horse power with decent torque.  If I go Diesel then Cummins 12 valve but they are hard to find cheap and decent.  So most likely 6.9 turbo or a 7.3 turbo, NOT powerstroke.  Transmission will be a ZF 6 or a ZF5 if I can't find a 6.  One reason I have not gotten rid of my 1992 is that it has an engine, trans, and rear axle for this build.  If I went OBS then I also have dash cluster, pedals, tilt column, and fuel tanks with sending hardware.  Ironically most of the truck will be Ford, and as modern of a Ford as I can get just without all the electronic crap.  I really have not figured out a good way to tow 10,000 lbs, have 2000lbs of payload, and still get 20mpg on the highway empty with out driving a newish vehicle.

I am not on nor have read about the issue on any Ford/Vehicle forums.  I have been swamped at work and with plumbing catastrophes at home.

The identifier is latches freezing more than "normal" combined with a complaining customer.  The latches freeze in the open position not closed.  Authorized fix is modified internal channeling and weatherstripping.  Combined with removing latches, drying them, re-greasing and then reinstalling.  According to the service manager at my local dealership this works about 40% of the time in his experience.  After the dealership did the "fix" they called my wife and she was there 1.5 hour later to pick it up, and one of the doors was froze by then.  She went in and told them, so they brought it back in and re-did the "fix".  She then drove 1.5 hours back home.  I got home an hour after she did, and the door that had been "fixed" twice was frozen again.  I have noticed a slight reduction in the frequency of the frozen latches, but it has been cold with low humidity until recently.

Customer fixes work at a slightly higher rate, but require a heated shop/garage as the first "tool".  Basically put the truck in a heated space, open the doors and leave for 2-7 days, a fan is optional but recommended if you are shooting for the shorter time frame.  Then re-lube with aerosol Kroil.

The real problem is that the latches are a semi-sealed unit filled with grease made by the lowest bidder.  This causes the required water shielding/weather proofing to change with the suppliers.  The grease filled part makes drying the moisture out of the mechanism problematic.  Apparently Ford has changed suppliers as the wife's '16 does not have the freeze problem.  And the freezing problem is spotty in the '18.